The positive and negative effects of the existing various political agendas towards the development and sustainability of Israel's National Resilience

1. The positive and negative effects of the
existing various political agendas towards
the development and sustainability of
Israel's National Resilience

2. National resilience can be defined as the ability of a nation to
maintain its collective identity and its citizens’ freedom and enable
their prosperity during long-term conflicts or in the wake of natural
calamities. The ability to be flexible and withstand pressure without
breaking down and be able to return to the original state after being
challenged.
Prof. Gabriel Ben Dor, Dr. Drora Ben Dov
Major national resilience components
• Military
• Social
• Political
Guidance
Budgeting
Decisions
Shay Ben Dov

3. Israel’s political structure
• Like other nations around the world: Right, Left and Center
• However, the defining components are different and tend to change
periodically.
• In addition there are 3 sectorial blocs:
Orthodox
Immigrants
Arabs
• Politics in Israel primarily revolve around security and only then around
social and economic issues.
• Belonging to Right, Left or Center is often related with
The Palestinian issue
Terror and threats to national security
Settlements
State & religion
Economic policy

4. Possible positive effects of political agendas towards
strengthening national resilience:
• Allocating sufficient budgets to national security
• Strengthening self esteem and national pride
• Advocating equality in national service
• Developing better education systems
• Creating international alliances
• Developing economy to attract international investments
• Advocating integrity and social justice
• Resolving conflicts with enemies to reduce potential threats

5. Possible negative effects of political agendas towards
strengthening national resilience:
• Allocating insufficient (or overgrown) budgets to national
security
• Lowering self esteem and national pride
• Advocating sectorial needs over national ones
• Creating international isolation
• Weakening economy to satisfy populist trends
• Despising integrity and creating social injustice
• Fueling conflicts with enemies, thereby increasing potential
threats

6. Trust in political institutions
From 1 (don’t agree at all) to 6 (in total agreement with)

7. Social resilience survey, 2009
-

8. National Social Resilience at Israel’s 60th Anniversary
Prof. Amir Barnea , Prof. Rafi Melnik
• Political index: measured by the strength of the rule of
law, corruption, governance, stability, and democracy
• Israel compared to the 20 OECD countries (20% lower)
and 4 neighboring countries: Syria, Lebanon, Egypt
and Jordan (30% higher)
• Examining the Israeli political index shows a
continuous decline over the past two decades parallel
to the decline in social index.

9. Conclusions:
• Ethical and moral standards are an essential
component in building national resilience in two
aspects:
Internally – how we see ourselves, moral strength
unrelated to the standard of others
Externally – how other nations see us
• The political sectorial blocs should gradually diminish,
allowing those who uphold the wider national interest
to grow.